Castlevania Fighter demonstrates the following tropes:

After-Combat Recovery: Just like in the main games, every boss leaves behind an orb when beaten. If you catch the orb so that you're in some kind of animation when the freeze-frame happens (jumping, attacking, doing a special move), your maximum HP, MP and/or attack power will increase. Catch enough orbs like this and you'll get a Double Shot or Triple Shot, which lets you toss more subweapons at a time, or strengthens them if they're the kind you can't use more than one of in quick succession. Depending on the character you use, it may be easier or harder to time an "Excellent/Perfect" orb catch.

Alternate Timeline: In the universe where this game takes place, in 1476 Trevor Belmont lost against Dracula, whose power then extended over the whole of Europe. 400 years later, such power has grown so much it starts to affect even timelines where Trevor won. This may explain why there are some baddies, even a version of Death, among the selectable cast - they may not be good doubles from some Mirror Universe but rather just interested in not having a Dracula from another reality influence their own.

Awesome Yet Practical: Old Jump Physics aside, little 8-bit Simon is one of the game's most strong and reliable characters for Arcade mode. He's noticeably powerful and resistant, it's easy to get Excellent bonuses with him, he has the gold knife and even gets a full screen charged attack (the Rosary) that his modern counterpart doesn't have yet.

Julius' version of the Cross crash has a more specific hitbox that will miss some bosses. However, there are plenty of bosses who are big or fly. When the crash hits those, expect them to quickly lose about half of their life.

The other two Survival-exclusive bosses were taken from the Demon Hunter Legend series of mobile Castlevania clones.

Cast from Hit Points: Jonathan loses HP while using the Vampire Killer, as only the Belmonts can wield it safely.

Charged Attack: Many characters like Hugh, Charlotte, Axe Armor and Master Skeleton have special moves you can charge up. Whatever character it is, you can see an aura around them which builds up, and starts flashing when it's fully charged. Charlotte has to charge up a moment to use her magic spell subweapons, but you can also keep charging to use a stronger version of them.

Combos: In a frightening inversion, the BOSSES can do these, because you flinch from their attacks and not vice versa. Lots of them have at least one possible method of juggling you, and you get Mercy Invincibility only when you touch the ground.

Continuing is VERY Painful / Unstable Equilibrium: If you die and use a continue, you lose all the stat boosts you got from special orb catches. Ergo, the best (perhaps only?) way to beat the game is to "one-credit clear" it. Technically averted as of the latest update, as you now keep all stats, points, and items when continuing. However, continues are now limited unless you use a secret cheat.

Double Jump: One of the common abilities that all the playable characters have, even if they didn't have one in their original games.

On the playable character side, Frozen Half and Puppet Master. They were never fully implemented and are left in the code cause it'd be harder to remove them.

Easy-Mode Mockery: Beating the game on Easy gets you a cutesy pic of Flandre Scarlet and a sarcastic comment "congratulating" you for beating Easy mode.

Excuse Plot: Currently the game doesn't have much of an over-arcing plot, but things are being planned out for a story.

Gatling Good: One of Hammer's special moves involves charging up and firing a gatling gun, and while actually firing it he's invincible. Time it right and you'll be dodging attacks you probably didn't think you could avoid as Hammer.

Glass Cannon: Maria Renard's animal helpers make for very effective subweapons, but she's noticeably fragile. By the same token, Charlotte has some extremely useful spells (especially Ice Needle charged up), but she can't take physical hits well.

There's also Hanz Belmont, who is accessible as an alternate mode of Richter and has the lowest starting HP to date (950).

Gradual Regeneration: Your MP recovers over time during the fights. If you have enough time, you can hold Up to pose for at least 2 seconds and make it recover faster.

Guns Akimbo: Another of Hammer's specials lets him do his best impression of Dante, hanging in the air while shooting twin pistols diagonally down.

Harder Than Hard / Nintendo Hard: Just about every boss has new attacks, and even on Normal mode things can get pretty hectic. Past Normal there's Hard mode and Nightmare mode, the latter of which isn't visible until you highlight it on the difficulty select screen.

Heal Thyself: Yoko, Charlotte, Maxim, and Simon are innately able to heal themselves (and nearby partners in co-op) in the middle of battle. Anyone can do it with healing potions from the item shop.

Invulnerable Attack: Quite a few characters have at least one move which gives some invincibility, like Albus' Igniz Kick and Richter's Whip Rush. When playing as some characters, you're pretty much forced to exploit this invincibility if you expect to beat the boss at all.

Joke Character / Lethal Joke Character: Since Serio doesn't like Jonathan Morris that much, he's in the roster as a joke character, with the Terror Bear from Harmony Of Despair instead of the whip, a set of silly subweapons, and special moves that can backfire. However, if used wisely he can still hold his own against the bosses. The joke turns a little more mean-spirited if you play Survival Mode and end up against an AI-controlled Jonathan, since he'll use proper versions of his armaments from Portrait of Ruin, including the Vampire Killer whip and a Holy Claymore for his main weapons. As icing on the cake, the in-game files refers to Jonathan as Jonafag.

Using the Konami Code in-game, however (the B and A buttons corresponding to Stonewall and backdash) turns Jonathan into his serious self, allowing one to use him, although use of the whip drains his health.

There's also the Frog from Rondo of Blood. He can only use his tongue as a whip-like attack and hop around. Despite this he is a small target and isn't really weak.

The latest version has Ronald McDonald from Treasure Land Adventure among the roster. His only attacks are throwing a weak sparkle, an incendiary hamburger and Fry Kids.

Konami Code: Turns "Jonafag" into regular Jonathan. B is Stonewall and A is the backdash.

Last Ditch Move: Dario, Lesser Demon, Dullahan and Flying Armor all have some method of hurting you as they die, but most of the bosses have another form of this - if you strike the killing blow while they're doing an attack, they won't die until the attack is finished.

Dracula has one last trick under his cape after defeating his third phase. During this fourth and final phase, he'll begin to charge up a final attack, summoning two swarms of bats to protect him. If the players can't deal enough damage in time to force him to teleport away and reset his charge time, he'll unleash the Demonic Meggido, a full screen instant kill.

Level Up: Not quite played straight. You can power yourself up, but only by catching the after-boss orbs in special ways. Soma and Alucard also grow a little bit stronger with every boss they defeat, by absorbing their souls.

Life Drain: Alucard, Maria, Persephone and Yoko have moves that can drain HP as they attack the enemy. On the opposing side, Brauner, Remilia and Dracula all have attacks to grab you and drain your health.

Limit Break: Every playable character (except for Yoko, Persephone, Albus, and Ronald McDonald has at least one super powerful move that runs off of hearts instead of the usual MP. Everyone who uses the classic Castlevania subweapons (Dagger, Axe, Cross, etc.) is able to perform their corresponding Item Crushes, except for Simon, who instead uses a Rosary for a full screen attack. Nathan and Hugh have to activate DSS Mode first. Sakuya has a unique Item Crash for the Stopwatch, but shares the Dagger Item Crash with the Belmonts. Jonathan has to be in serious mode in order to use Item Crashes. Most of the characters who don't use the classic subweapons have unique super moves instead.

Loads and Loads of Characters: Surpasses even Harmony of Despair in this regard, containing almost every playable character in the series, and them some.

Mook-Face Turn: Some former enemies of the Belmonts are turned into playable characters, ranging from Skeletons to Werewolves to Axe Armors to Persephones. Even the Rondo of Blood version of Death is a playable character (the boss-only version, on the other hand, is from Dawn of Sorrow).

Real Time Weapon Change: Every playable character has at least two or three subweapons, and you have a button to cycle through them.

Sequential Boss: In Arcade mode only, Dracula is first fought in his human appearance from Order of Ecclesia, then turns One-Winged Angel (this particular form being taken from Circle of the Moon), and finally, when you think it's over, he has to be fought again in a powered-up version of his first form (which has two separate phases in its own right). He averts this in survival mode, fighting only in his third phase.

Special Attack: Almost every character has at least one, and the commands for them aren't particularly exotic, since this is a platformer we're dealing with. The usual motions before the button include tapping forward twice, a quarter-circle forward, Up and a quarter-circle forward (rolling Up-Back-Down-Forward works too), a half-circle forward, and a half circle Down-Forward-Up (used for Item Crushes and similar super-powerful attacks).

Spin to Deflect Stuff: Everyone who uses a whip can spin it around, which deals very little damage but is incredibly useful for blocking projectiles and clearing away any small-fry baddies the boss summons, as well as pushing back Gergoth's poison and petrifying gas and wiping away Brauner's Blood Art strokes.

Summon Magic: Most of Reimu's special attacks bring in Cirno and Marisa to use some of their signature attacks. Charlotte and Jonathan's heart moves bring in their partner for the Holy Lightning Dual Crush. That is, unless you put Jonathan in serious mode. Stella and Loretta also summon each other for their heart moves.

Time Stands Still: Soma, Charlotte, Death, and anyone with a Stopwatch can slow down time for a bit, causing the boss to move and attack in slow-motion. While it doesn't freeze anything completely, it works on just about every boss. Sakuya's Stopwatch item crash actually does freeze time entirely, however, long enough for her to throw a large number of knives straight into her enemy.

Turns Red: Just about all the bosses do at least something new when they've lost enough health.

Death (as the penultimate boss, not the playable version) literally Turns Red mid-fight (along with the Moon in the background), taking on his second form from Dawn of Sorrow.

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